The following instructions pertain to configuring the MythTV backend on OSX, using an HDHomeRun network tuner in the United States. They are geared toward connecting to a broadcast antenna. Cable TV clients will need to elaborate on them somewhat.

Listings Information

MythTV requires listings information to do a good job of displaying upcoming shows. Digital broadcasters send a few hours of listings information over the air, but they are often inaccurate.

Begin by obtaining an account from SchedulesDirect. Make a note of your User ID and password. For purposes of this document, we will assume they are sduser and sdpassword respectively. Substitute as necessary in the instructions below.

Know Your Network

To watch remotely, you will need to be able to let other computers talk to your backend and its database. Almost every home network is configured with NAT and will therefore have its addresses appear as
A.B.C.x where A, B, and C never change.

In this document we will assume that A.B.C.x is 192.168.1.x. To find out the right numbers for your network, open a Terminal and type

shell> ifconfig -a

It will show you a lot of information about your network configuration, including an IP address of your backend which this document will assume was 192.168.1.123.

You should also go into System Preferences and click on Sharing to find the sharing name of your backend. It will likely be xx.local where xx is your machine name. If it is not something short and simple, now is a good time to change it. Here we will assume your sharing name is tvrecorder.local.

Substitute for 192.168.1.123, 192.168.1.x and tvrecorder.local as necessary in the instructions below.

Set Up HDHomeRun

Put the HDHomeRun on your network and connect it to the antenna. Install the official utilities on your backend, and run the GUI app.

The GUI should be able to find the HDHomeRun automatically, and switch channels. If you know the digital braodcast frequency of a channel, you can tune to that channel and see its signal strength. If you also have VLC installed you will be able to watch the channel live.

You must make sure your backend communicates with the HDHomeRun before proceeding. Once you have done so, quit the GUI app.

Storage Room

You will want to create a directory to store your recordings in, preferably several hundred gigabytes in size. (The SuperBowl requires about 70GB). This document assumes the given directory is /Television. Substitute as necessary in the instructions below.

Database Configuration

Set up the database as in the main instructions, but ensure that the database is configured to communicate with your entire home network:

Backend Setup

Install

Download the backend, and copy its files to a new folder in /Applications/, such as /Applications/MythBackend

Initial Setup

Find the setup program MythTV-Setup.app. To navigate this program it is useful (but not completely necessary, see trouble ticket #10587) to have a keyboard, a mouse and an Apple Remote all attached. They can all be used in the same session.

Navigation Notes

The setup program contains many pages consisting of boxes that need to be filled in, and buttons for Next or Prev pages of boxes.

Keyboard

You use the Tab key to switch to the next box or button, and the Enter key to select it. Shift-Tab behaves like Tab but moves the selection in the opposite direction.

Many boxes hide a list of possibilities inside. You are supposed to hit the right or left arrow keys to choose among them.

The Esc key lets you exit from a submenu, close a popup, or cancel an action.

Mouse

The mouse can only be used to click on buttons, but is useful when the other aspects of the user interface make navigating to a button hard to figure out.

One difficulty is that the user interface likes to hide the mouse cursor. To find the cursor again, press ⌘-Tab to briefly switch away from the setup app. The cursor will become visible. Press ⌘-Tab again to get back into the setup app and click away.

Apple Remote

You use the down arrow to switch to the next box or button, and the play button key to select it. up arrow behaves like down arrow but moves the selection in the opposite direction.

Many boxes hide a list of possibilities inside. You are supposed to hit the right or left arrow keys to choose among them.

The cancel button lets you exit from a submenu, close a popup, or cancel an action.

Running Setup

Start the setup application. You will be asked to choose a country and language. The defaults of USA and US English are probably what you want, so just hit Tab twice to get to the Save button, and hit Enter to select it.

The application will close briefly and then reopen itself.

Main Setup Menus

The setup menus appear as a list of eight numbered selections, intended to be chosen and manipulated in their numeric order. We will be able to skip a couple of them.

Menu 1: General

Screen A: Host Address Backend Setup

Set the address of the backend either to tvrecorder.local, or to the IP address of your backend if you know it to have a fixed address

Set the security PIN to 0000

Set the address of the master backend either to tvrecorder.local, or to the IP address of your backend if you know it to have a fixed address

Select Next

Screen B: Locale Settings

Skip all these locale settings. Choose Next.

Screen C: Miscellaneous Settings

Skip all these miscellaneous settings. Choose Next.

Screen D: EIT Scanner Options

Skip all these scanner options settings. Choose Next.

Screen E: Shutdown/Wakeup Options

Skip all these shutdown/wakeup settings. Choose Next.

Screen F: Backend Wakeup settings

Skip all these backend wakeup settings. Choose Next.

Screen G: Backend Control settings

Skip all these backend control settings. Choose Next.

Screen H: Job Queue (Backend-Specific)

Set the maximum job count higher than 1 if you have a relatively modern computer (a pre-2011 Mac Mini should stay at 1). Set CPU usage to Medium. Both these settings are optional and can be left alone.

Choose Next.

Screen I: Job Queue (Global)

Skip all these global job queue settings. Choose Next.

Screen J: Job Queue (Job Commands)

Skip all these local job queue command settings. Choose Next.

Screen K: Program Schedule Downloading Options

Skip all these program schedule download options settings. Choose Finish.

You are finished with this menu category. Hit Esc to exit out of it.

Menu 2: Capture Cards

You need to specify that you have an HDHomeRun. Enter the menu.

Choose (select and press Enter key) New Capture Card

Type: Press the down arrow to highlight HDHomeRun

Available Devices: Press the down arrow until your device appears. It probably has 2 or more entries because it has multiple tuners, so just choose the first one. If your device does not appear you will have to enter the required IP Address and Tuner ID manually.

Click Finish

Choose New Capture Card again

Type: Press the down arrow to highlight HDHomeRun

Available Devices: Press the down arrow. Previously configured tuners will have the message Already in use. Choose the next one that is free. If your device does not appear you will have to enter the required IP Address and Tuner ID manually. If there are none such, you can cancel out of the screen.

Click Finish

Repeat until you have configured all your tuners.

Hit Esc to exit out of this menu category.

Menu 3: Recording Profiles

You do not need to enter this menu. Skip it.

Menu 4: Video Sources

You need to specify how you will get TV listings. Enter this menu.

Click New Video Source and hit "Enter".

Video source name: SchedulesDirect

"Listings grabber": Use the down arrow to select SchedulesDirect.org

User ID: sduser (from the account you created)

Password: sdpassword

Select Retrieve Lineups

Click Finish

Hit Esc to exit out of this menu category.

Menu 5: Input Connections

You need to link your HDHomeRun tuner(s) to your TV listings, and scan for channels. Enter the menu. You should see two or more entries linking your tuners to (None).

You may also get a message about Found 21 non-conflicting MPEG channels. Select Insert All.

You may also get a message about Found 3 conflicting ATSC channels. Select Ignore All but be aware you may need to deal with some missing channels later. You will be able to scan again to do that.

Select Finish

Select Next

This screen is about interactions between inputs. Just skip them and choose Finish.

You should now notice the name of the first entry reflecting the connection between your HDHomeRun and SchedulesDirect.

Select the next entry for a tuner currently connected to (None) and press "Enter" key

Set the Display Name to SchDir-HDHR-1 (or your own choice)

Set the Video Source to SchedulesDirect using the arrow keys

You do not need to scan for channels (assuming this tuner is on the same antenna feed as the other).

If you do run a channel scan, it is safe to choose either Ignore All or Update All for non-conflicting entries.

Ignore conflicting entries.

Select Next

This screen is about interactions between inputs. Just skip them and choose Finish.

Repeat as necessary for other tuners currently connected to (None). Choose distinct names for their Display Name entries.

Hit Esc to exit out of this menu category.

Menu 6: Channel Editor

You do not need to enter this menu. Skip it.

Menu 7: Storage Directories

You need to provide the directory where you will save the recorded programs. Enter the menu.

Select Default

Select Add New Directory

Type in the directory path, such as /Television

Select OK

Hit Esc to exit out of these menus.

Menu 8: System Events

You do not need to enter this menu.

You are finished with setup, so press Esc or the cancel button on your remote to exit setup.

Backend

You are now ready to start the backend. You should configure it to start automatically as described on the main instruction page.

The first time you run the backend, give it a 10 minutes to download the TV schedules before you try to use it. Then, run a the frontend on your server to verify everything is working. You should be able to view listings, schedule programming , and watch live TV.

Frontends

Frontends on other computers should be able to find the backend, but may need to be provided with the database password for mythtv.

If a frontend cannot find your backend, verify the computers can communicate with each other using file sharing or some other non-MythTV protocol. If they can, then verify the frontend still works on your backend machine itself.